In 2023, there’s no shortage of Star Wars media for fans to dive into. And debates about the prequel versus sequel trilogy aside, there’s one movie in the long-running franchise fairly universally maligned: The Star Wars Holiday Special.
And if you’ve ever watched said special and found yourself wondering, How did this get made?… You’re in luck, because we’re all about to find out. A documentary exploring the making of the holiday special will officially debut at South by Southwest Film Festival this year.
Aptly titled A Disturbance in the Force, the documentary will tell the untold story of the special. Here’s the doc’s official description:
In 1977, Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revitalized a stagnant film industry, and forever changed how films were sold, made, and marketed. Movies would never be the same again.
A year later, neither would television.
In 1978, CBS aired the two-hour Star Wars Holiday Special during the week of Thanksgiving and was watched by 13 million people. It never re-aired. While some fans of the franchise are aware of this dark secret, this bizarre two hours of television still remains relatively unknown among the general public. Simply put, we will answer how and why did the Holiday Special get made.
The documentary reportedly features talent including Seth Green, Weird Al Yankovic, Taran Killam, Gilbert Gottfried, Bonnie Burton, Paul Scheer, Donny Osmond, and more. A Disturbance in the Force comes from directors Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak.
SXSW kicks off March 10th this year. However, for those of us not attending the festival, we’ll have to wait for more news about when this documentary will be available. We don’t know just yet if the film will launch to wider audiences via streaming or VOD following its world premiere at SXSW. It might continue to play on festival circuits for a while longer. So, stay tuned to THS for more updates.
So, do you want to see A Disturbance in the Force? Or would you prefer to just pretend The Star Wars Holiday Special never happened? Let us know in the comments.
